From the reopening of a landmark to voices raised once again in irritation, the signs are clear: Nearly three weeks after the World Trade Center attacks, this city is finally regaining a sense of equilibrium.
People are returning to restaurants and Broadway plays. The sharp, short-tempered tones of New York life–the dissonant street music of arguments and car horns–are gradually rising in volume.
In one of the most symbolic acts of the city’s commitment to soldier on, the observatory at the Empire State Building, once again the tallest structure in New York, reopened Saturday.
With more than 5,600 people still missing in the rubble of the trade center, it’s impossible to call the state of affairs normal in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The fliers for the missing still form a melancholy wallpaper at busy subway and train stations. In an indication of how long the city’s physical wound will remain unhealed, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Friday that clearing the 1.2 million tons of debris from the twin towers will take up to a year.
But the reopening of the Empire State Building, a prime tourist attraction and a potential terrorist target, is one indication that the post-attack jitters are easing.
“The view from the observatory is forever changed,” said building spokesman Howard Rubinstein. “But we proudly open the observatory to celebrate the resilience of this city.”
Tourists who ventured to the building’s 86th-floor observation desk on Saturday looked south with disbelief.
“I just don’t know how it could happen here,” Joan Carroll of Cheyenne, Wyo., said as she looked downtown at the gap where the World Trade Center stood. “It is sad. It’s very sad.”
More than 500 visitors lined up by 10 a.m. to pass through a security X-ray machine for the elevator ride upstairs, with building officials saying they expected several thousand tourists.
Broadway goes on
Broadway, one of the hardest hit of the city’s business sectors, also is coming back to life. Revenues plummeted 75 percent in the week after the hijacking attacks, and four shows posted closing notices.
Giuliani implored New Yorkers to go to a show, making it seem like a civic duty to patronize a theater. Broadway is making a slow recovery as gross revenues the week after the mayor’s plea were down 35 percent and ticket sales continue to increase in the succeeding weeks.
“There seems to be an almost universal sense that getting back into one’s normal routines is the best thing we can do,” said Jed Bernstein, executive director of the League of American Theatres and Producers, a trade group for Broadway theaters.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, tables at restaurants where reservations are usually impossible to obtain stood empty. Now, they are occupied again.
The Union Square Cafe, one of the city’s most popular restaurants, suffered a 50 percent drop in business in the week following the attack. Revenues are likely to be off by only 2 or 3 percent this week.
“Things are every day a little bit busier,” said managing partner Paul Bolles-Beaven. “I think New Yorkers are just trying to grapple with the reality of what happened, and they’re in need of good food, good wine and good hospitality.”
`Gotta keep moving’
At Penn Station, a subway and commuter rail hub on Manhattan’s West Side, shoe shiner William Star had seen so little business in the days after the attack that he shuttered his stand for two days. Two weeks later, however, business climbed back, he said.
“People want to talk, they want to stop on the way to work,” said Star, 64, as commuters streamed by. “They’re saying, `Gotta keep moving. Can’t let them scare you.'”
A week ago, New Yorkers remarked to each other that the streets seemed strangely quiet. By Friday, however, drivers tangled as usual in Times Square, leaning on horns and gesturing vividly.
A pedestrian yelled at a camera-toting tourist for blocking the sidewalk. Two women, each with a rolling suitcase, bickered over a cab.
There were also flashes of returning cheerfulness. Teenagers crowded the sidewalk beneath MTV’s glassy Times Square studio, squealing and waving furiously whenever the camera turned to them.
Medical administrator Julie Natale, 24, stood at the entrance to a nearby building and watched the familiar midtown chaos.
“People are getting back to normal on the surface, at least,” she said. “I think deep down, everyone is still on edge, waiting for the next thing to happen.”
Natale reflected the general feeling that whatever passes for normal now is somehow subtly different from its pre-attack counterpart. Normal has been redefined.
Greeting a regular patron who hadn’t been to his restaurant since the attack has taken on deeper meaning for Bolles-Beaven.
“Every time you see a regular guest who hasn’t been in yet, you’re just grateful to see that person again and know they’re OK,” he said.
Some cars stopped
In another sign of continuity, the Holland Tunnel, one of the main links between Manhattan and New Jersey, opened for traffic Friday for the first time since the attack. But, in a further demonstration that nothing is really the same as before, single-occupant vehicles heading for Manhattan are now turned away.
Even at the Empire State Building, the observatory will be open only on weekends for now because weekday visitors to the Art Deco landmark would be too much of a burden on the security staff, which has implemented extra security procedures for building employees.
On Friday, a bomb scare emptied the building for at least the second time since Sept. 11.
Standing in a snaking line of people waiting to enter the skyscraper on Friday, Sarah Jensen checked her watch and saw her job interview appointment passing by.
“They will understand, I think,” said Jensen, 25, a Cornell University law student who had hoped to interview at a firm in the Empire State Building. “I think people better get used to this, because it is going to be weird for a long time.”
